Saturday, December 9, 2017

Starry, Starry Day

So much sewing this week, but not a lot of finished results to show for it. But our annual family FIESTA is today, and I spent a good part of the week in preparation for that. In addition to some housework (have to break down and do it sometime), there was a lot of prep and cooking of the enchiladas, fajitas, mole’, etc etc. Today I still have to wrap Christmas presents for the grandkids - the best place for them is under the tree, wrapped, to avoid curious eyes and little snoopers. Of course, I will outsmart them by writing their names on the tags in shorthand so no one will know what belongs to whom.  HA!

OK, so let me start with the most underwhelming things first. My brother, who is living with us until spring, needed some flannel pajama bottoms for our cold winter. Thanks to JoAnn’s Black Friday sale (which started on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, when there were no crowds), I bought some FUGLY flannel for him. PJ bottoms made. He loves them.


I also worked and finished up my Clue #2 to Bonnie Hunter’s On Ringo Lake Mystery Quilt-Along, and that was detailed in my last post. Just lots of coral-colored geese.

And then your Christmas fabrics overflow-eth, make table toppers and runners! I have NO Christmas table runners, so I did get a start on one, using my oldest scraps. It’s a basic patchwork of light and neutral background squares onto which I fused/stitched holly leaves and berries.



The red and green are left over from Steve’s quilted Christmas stocking that I showed last week. It’s pin basted, and the backing will fold over as the binding/facing once quilted. Should be quick work to finish this up tomorrow. And then maybe I can pull some cute scraps out and work on something more fun!


The Tulip Quilt is quilted and delivered to my friend Terri, who will be binding it this week in preparation for Christmas gifting to our friend Diane. Terri will get a finished picture and send it to me so that I can post it here in the next next week or two. We plan to have a luncheon get-together (the three of us ladies plus our hubbies, The Muddy Gutter Boys) before Christmas to exchange gifts.

And Friendship Stars is coming along. I’ve finished the green round of stars and have moved on to the next ring, which is red and orange. It’s grown enough now that I have to hang it sideways on my design board.  Linking up to Scrappy Saturday at Angela’s blog.


The pattern, with the movement of the white patches, is very forgiving overall. The myriad seams, which are crazy-awful to press, help line things up as one is sewing. There are a lot of cut-off points and not-perfect seams, but they get lost in the busy-ness of it all. I’m loving it, even though it is far from smooth and flat. But all that will be inconsequential once it is quilted and washed. And my thoughts are turning to..... how should I quilt this?  I’d welcome your thoughts.

Once the flimsy is sewn, it will go on the back burner until January so that I can begin putting together my Plus Quilt top. Or start the promised Hot Rod Quilt for my brother (groan). I’ve collected the fabrics for that, and narrowed the design ideas down to a couple, and am running out of excuses not to start it. The up-side to the hot rod quilt is that my dread is inversely proportional to his excitement, so I’ll be focusing on his excitement to carry me through. :-)

Cathy maroon

16 comments:

  1. So many great projects--I love your Christmas tablerunner, and the Friendship Stars are coming together beautifully! Arranging them in rings of color is a great design choice!

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  2. I missed the part of the post where you show Darla and Alfie dressed up as Santa's elves. And your rainbow Friendship Stars are still enticing...

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  3. Great projects, Cathy! I love that idea for Christmas runners--{I only have one that is so mixed-up scrappy that it could pass for any holiday lol!}
    I like how your holly leaves came out--very posh looking...
    We are in the midst of a snow event--luckily I don't have to go out and can just watch it mount up....hugs, Julierose

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  4. Your Christmas table runner looks great, Cathy! I like the holly leaves and berries on it. Friendship Stars is coming along nicely, too! Have a wonderful time with your family and Fiesta tonight! Sounds so yummy!

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  5. For quilting, maybe use invisible thread. I think the quilt top is busy enough without adding colored thread. You can use invisible thread on top or, depending on your back, use it on top and bottom.

    My idea for quilting is to quilt the square in the middle of the star like stitch in the ditch, but 1/4" inch inside seam and do the same with the half squared triangles. On the white strips a simple line down the middle.

    You could also do just a simple diagonal or straight horizontal or vertical lines from top to bottom on the quilt. Lines could also be wavy.

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  6. Love the fabric for the table runner. You have been very busy. Hugs, lj

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  7. Not sure what you find so ugly about your brother's PJ's. I think they turned out cute (as is the Holiday runner!) I'm loving the Friendship Star design, too.

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  8. I love the friendship stars quilt. Wow! I just might have to do it next year, looking for ideas.

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  9. I need some Christmas table runners too! That Friendship Stars quilt is just stunning! (It also just got put on my "must make" list!)

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  10. Everything looks awesome! Love the Friendship star. quilt. As for your brothers Hot Rod quilt, do it as your leaders and enders. I put off making a baby quilt my husband requested I make, then forgot about it. He reminded me at last. I worked on it for a few months while doing other stuff. I decided on QAYG. When we shipped it I found out she was eleven. Good thing I made it twin size instead of toddler size!!! Another funny story about that quilt is that I kept saying to my husband, : I am working on Sophias quilt"! I had intended to Spell her name on the back side of the quilt. I wanted to get done already so I didn't. Good thing too. Her name was Sonya. My husband never corrected me when I said her name. I would have killed him for sure.

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  11. I hate sewing what I don't wanna sew. I forget, why the procrastination on the hot rod quilt? No worry, you'll whip right through it. Can't be worse than the Guitar Quilt, lol.

    I have taken a back seat this holiday and left it all entirely up to Corey and Alyssa. I want her to be able to make their first Christmas together as much theirs as possible while staying with us.
    xx, Carol

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  12. Very sneaky trick with those gift tags! Excellent!
    You're pushing me right over the edge with those Friendship Stars, you know. Getting to be downright irresistible...

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  13. I *love* the flannel fabric of your brother's PJ pants! Of course, I'm a motorcyclist, so I'm biased :) Your holiday runner is super cute!

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  14. Love the idea of your Family Fiesta! We have not ventured far into Mexican/Southwest style cooking, although we love to eat it! Looking forward to seeing a picture of the tulips...and the Friendship Star is looking great! The colors in today's picture remind me of strawberry lemonade!

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  15. love your "secret language"... shorthand! and the Christmas table runner, may steal that idea! (sorry, I don't speak shorthand!, but calligraphy, yes!)

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  16. Finally - a good use for shorthand! I used to color code my tags. A family fiesta sounds like such fun....I'm sure everyone looks forward to it.

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